Hall of Heroes

[VennDygrem]

So, as a Kineticist, Aquila is very much a fifth wheel sort. She's built to be sort of a switch hitter, capable of getting into melee but preferring mid-range combat so she can make the most of mobility and crowd control options. That said, staying out of melee is best since her primary attacks all trigger reactions like AoO/Reactive Strike, and her AC is one lower than max for the level since I split my secondary stats between Str and Dex. With access only to light armor and no armor impulses like for Earth, Metal, or Wood, I'm stuck with studded leather armor until I max out Dex, and then leather or explorer's clothing will be better. I don't plan on pursuing heavier armor, as it would eat into my own mobility.

Going with Air and Water elements means I'm not focusing on being a heavy hitter. I'll have decent options to get a few hits in, but my primary intended role is support. I have a pretty decent limited heal ability with future access to some more, and I've currently taken Four Winds which can help move us around in battle. In a dense city with potentially claustrophobic areas for maneuvering, it could either be really useful for moving in and out of position, or useless if there's nowhere to go or if moving would provoke an attack. Finally, I also wanted to have an AoE power to help against crowds or swarms. I had a choice between two, and I went with Tidal Hands over Winter's Clutch. The former fits my theming better, and gives me somewhat more control over placement of the area effect, although it requires me being closer to danger.

I'm open to hearing suggestions for changes to better fit the party. If we think we have plenty of healing, I could swap out Ocean's Balm, for instance, or if Four Winds would just open us up to too many AoOs then I could easily swap that out.

As for future plans, I figured I'd be heading into the Witch archetype, and decide on which spell list to access after the party was finalized (or even leave it up to the GM as a surprise). Since my Int is going to be low until mid-levels, and behind a dedicated caster even then, I figured once I gain access to spellcasting benefits I wouldn't be focused on spells affecting enemies as much as spells to help the party. Maybe slightly circumstantial spells that primary casters don't have much room for, but which still come up often enough that it's useful to have on hand. I also plan on eventually taking Familiar Master, which will help make the familiar more versatile and useful. By this point, I hope the Remaster rules are all fully and freely available, since the Witch benefits greatly from the changes, including the options available through the archetype.

With 7 player characters, I'm not sure what niches need to be filled that aren't already, but having an extra hand on many things can be useful.

[Gnaws]

Here is my not-so-wall-of-text post:

 

Valerica was originally intended as a switch hitter, but I've dialed back on that a bit to free up some more useful feats. She will primarily be attacking from ranged with a shortbow (composite once I can find it) but has a shortsword that she can use when in melee. I'm planning to get her into the medic dedication first so she'll need to be able to have some survivability in the frontline when needed.

Long term, after I've picked up enough medic feats, Valerica will branch out into the archer dedication to pick up a few more offensive options. In general, I want her to be mobile and versatile so that she can move around the battlefield assisting in whatever way is most appropriate at the time.

For background, pretty much all of her connections are dead (bad omen for all of you) except for Vencarlo Orisini, who Zen has helped tie in to my backstory, so I imagine they'll come up. She also has her smithy as an ongoing backstory focus I'll be playing with, trying to pull it up out of the gutter and make it profitable again.

[Thramzorean]

Firstly I better state I'm still pretty green when it comes to Pathfinder 2e. I'll be playing this a bit by ear as I go forward, I'm not familiar enough with the system to have a clear idea of the multilevel specifics at this point.

Ionacu will be going investigator for his archetype, so there'll remain a strong social/cerebral aspect to the character, besides the fundamental witch spell casting. What is in the build deliberately is the Cauldron ability early, so that he'll be a worthwhile investment of group funds to churn out healing potions and the like.

[saithor]

My tiny bit of text: For right now I'm mostly winging it in terms of builds for Ihrin. The plan is mostly to be a support character for, now primarily attacking with a bow, with a rapier for back-up. I'll be MCing into Rogue for more skill monkeying and the fluff.

[Whitehart09]

So, with Carthen, I will be playing a melee based fighter.

I am starting off with Sudden Charge, mainly to get into the fight and active right away. When I hit second I will be picking up Snagging Strike and the Beastmaster Dedication. My goal with Beastmaster is to have, at a minimum, two dogs (but probably three). One will be dex based and the other strength. They are there for fighting and tracking mainly though their support benefit (-5 speed on strike) and Knockdown on bites will be a big help as well.

Knockdown will be coming into play at 4th with Wrestler dedication at 6th to start ramping up the grabs.

So I guess, while doing consistent damage, I will be setting up everyone to get some easier hits in.

[Keante]

None of Lira's features are really combat-related, except that if she succeeds on an Esoteric Lore check against an enemy, she'll get to do some bonus damage against them (the thaumaturge's Exploit Vulnerability action). Her attack bonus is +6. I'm not sure how that compares to any benchmark. I do think she'll be in melee because if she throws her starknife she won't have any other weapons until she picks up the starknife again. And I have used up basically all of my money--a fine Harrow deck is expensive (for starting character wealth)!

The thaumaturge's Esoteric Lore is a very versatile Recall Knowledge skill, made even more so by my first class feat choice of Diverse Lore. And Lira's lantern implement can give us all a bonus to visual Perception checks and Recall Knowledge checks against creatures within 20 feet. The GM will also roll secret checks for me to find traps, environmental hazards, haunts, and secrets (such as secret doors).

[Vedast]

14 hours ago, Keante said:

Her attack bonus is +6. I'm not sure how that compares to any benchmark.

For 1st level:

The pinnacle of accuracy is the Fighter. So 1st level + Expert + an 18 applicable ability => +9 (1+4+4)

Much more typical is 1st level + Trained + 18 applicable ability => +7 (1+2+4)

Or, Trained with a 16 applicable ability, => +6

Trained skills are going to be in the range of +3 to +7 depending on ability (3+ ability bonus). Or +2 for a poor, weak halfling's Athletics skill.

 

What does this mean? It depends, of course. But, the standard 1st level DC = 15. As of now, our characters range from AC = 15 to 18.

 

Edited February 29 by Vedast (see edit history)

[Thramzorean]

Nice thing for me is I've never played or looked at this in any way. Definitely enjoying the intro... 👍

[Vedast]

@Zen Gypsy  Will you be wanting us to make what would generally be hidden rolls e.g. Stealth, Hide, Perception, Recall Knowledge, those sorts of things? I've read your description of using Block Initiative, but thought clarification for everyone on the ubiquitous roll-or-wait question would be useful.

 

 

[Gnaws]

This is my first play by post outside of my own group so if someone is able to just straight up outline best rolling practices for me, that would be great 😅 Like, with the society check mentioned, I'm assuming I don't roll, wait for the GM to respond, and then continue? What is the best flow for things like that?

[Vedast]

@Thramzorean  I noticed that both your posting template and your character sheet show Ionacu's hps as 8/8.

I think it should be:

• 8 human ancestry
• 6 witch class
• 2 CON bonus

So a total of 16? Perhaps you missed the ancestry hps? So 16/16 at full using actual/maximum.

[Thramzorean]

Ah, thank you, I did indeed. As I mentioned, I'm a noob here in 2e and likely to drop a clanger or two...

[Vedast]

4 minutes ago, Thramzorean said:

Ah, thank you, I did indeed. As I mentioned, I'm a noob here in 2e and likely to drop a clanger or two...

No problem at all. By the way, if you haven't seen/used Pathbuilder 2e, it is a great character building tool.

Edited March 2 by Vedast (see edit history)

[Thramzorean]

👍